Coolest Lion Cake

My daughter loves lions, so for her third birthday in February I decided to surprise her with a lion cake. I was really nervous about making this cake and it ended up being one of my favorite cakes I have ever made. My daughters and all of our party guests were in awe of this cake and it was a big hit with all of my Facebook friends. I seriously did not want to cut into it.

To make the cake I started out making (4) 13x 9 sheet cakes. I filled and stacked (3) of the cakes for the body and I cut the other cake into three even rectangles. I filled and stacked them on the front of the body to give height for the head. I carved the body and chest area to make them more rounded. I then took homemade rice crispy treats to create the front and back legs, the top of the head, the ears, and the face. I used a little fondant on the face to create the shape of the nose and mouth. Once the face was hardened I secured it to the face area of the cake with a few wooden dowels angled towards the middle of the body.

I then put a thin layer of icing over the entire cake and covered each leg, the body, and the head with separate sheets of yellow tinted homemade marshmallow fondant. I used the same fondant to make a long rope for the tail. Before applying the fondant I was seriously doubting myself with this cake. I actually told my husband that we needed to start coming up with a plan B. Once I got the fondant on it finally started to look like a lion. That’s when I knew it was going to turn out and I got my confidence back.

Once the cake was completely covered with fondant, I tinted icing using golden yellow and light brown. I began piping the mane on starting from the bottom and working my way to the top. I then piped icing onto the end of the tail. To finish I used fondant to make the eyes and food coloring to paint on the nose and mouth.

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